Inghams has seen an upturn in bookings for the coming winter season after experiencing a “stagnant” market in the wake of the pandemic and Brexit.
Managing director John Mansell said a rebranding carried out by the operator in 2023 had helped reposition the brand, which was now overachieving on its targets.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly Webcast at the operator’s 90th anniversary party, he confirmed the ski market “has been fairly stagnant for the last couple of years”.
He said Brexit had meant staffing became a “big problem” with the company’s chalet programme so that was scaled back in favour of more hotels in the four-star-plus category.
“Last year was quite tough for us. We had scaled back because of the reduction we had in chalet market, but it was still quite a tough year,” he said, noting how some clients had reduced their ski trips from three or four a season to one or two and the family market had also been hit.
“We are doing a lot better this year, we’re really over our expected targets,” he said.
“What has been surprising for us this year has been the New Year week. [It] is probably one of our strongest weeks, which is great, because it allows us to then push on at the beginning of season with what’s left.”
Mansell noted the impact of the brand revamp which saw the introduction of fresh logos, websites and brand imagery for its ski, summer and Lapland programmes – with the new Inghams Walking brand aiming to attract more clients in younger age brackets.
“It’s been a revelation for us, the repurposing of our walking, lakes and mountains [holidays] has been able to align us as a brand,” he said.
“The rebrand and the repositioning is really, really helpful.”
He also said Inghams is seeing more high street and homeworking agents selling its ski holidays, thanks to having extra staff on the road to talk to the trade.
“Ski specialists are always going to be our core but we are seeing some diversification into the high street and the homeworkers,” he said.
“We have put a couple of extra headcount into that over the last couple of years, and we’re seeing the benefits.”
The operator is also looking long-term at the implications of the climate crisis which is likely to mean less snow over winter at traditional European ski resorts. The strategy includes the introduction of Norway for both summer and winter programmes.
“We have done lot of analysis over the last couple of years. We’re working on a future strategy, which we call Ski 3.0 which is looking at making sure we are still going to be operational past 2035, 2040, when we’re expecting potential climate impacts to really hit,” Mansell said.
Inghams has introduced two new destinations by train for the 2024-5 ski season as part of its drive to cut its carbon footprint and offer more sustainable choices for clients.
Morzine and Avoriaz are being added to Inghams’ rail programme, making a third of all of the ski resorts it features now reachable by train.